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'BUY LIBERTY BONDS" 

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AR! 





BY 

FREDERICK M. CORCORAN 



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THE KAISER 



AND HIS PALS 

(^■BMMnnuanMnanKBsziBBanraeKaaHei^BEaKn^H^BKsn 

BY 

FRANK URBAN 



Copyright, 191S, 

By 

Anti-Socialist Press. 

Acknowledgment of Copyright 
is required for all quotations. 



THE ANTI-SOCIALIST PRESS, Publishers 

117 West 132nd Street :: :: :: NEW YORK CITY 



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"HELP THE RED CROSS" 



THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLL 
ANCE meets every Friday evening at 8 P. M., at 117 
West 132c! Street (near Lenox Ave.), New York City, 
for discussions on the Geometric Tax and kindred sub- 
jects. All sober-minded and patriotic persons, inter- 
ested in maintaining our .Constitutional Government 
and supporting those morals which demand purity and 
honesty in legislative enactments, holding that Social- 
ism and Bolshevikism are not only inimical but de- 
structive to our ideals of Americanism, are most 
cordially welcomed. 

Send stamps for five books — "War! Why not?" 
"Dynamic Democracy," "The Menace of the I. W. W." 
"Americanism" and "Socialism." Ten cents each. 



MUGGING 

THE KAISER AND HIS PALS 
PART I 

We are at war with the most damnable cut-throat 
that ever lived; with the biggest rough-neck of which 
history has any record; with the greatest outlaw that 
ever left his footprints in the sands of time. 

This war was forced upon us by an Imperial idiot, 
by an Aristocratic pediculous, by a Royal lunatic, by 
a Monarchical maniac — Kaiser Will-Hell of Prussia, 
the Beast of Berlin, the Royal bum of Germany. 

A God-forsaken, heathen-stricken end benighted 
Prussian Prince, with a paralyzed arm, a diseased 
brain and a withered soul, fta$ plunged the world into 
a catastrophe of a hideously /grim reality — war. 

There can be no substantially abiding peace until 
this Lucifer of dynamic German Kultur — Schrecklich- 
keit — is taken by the scruff of the neck and the seat of 
the pants and his dirty, rotten, stinking, putrid carcass 
is cast into the Rhine river, or he is hung beneath a 
Linden tree in Germany, or made a prisoner in Bel^ 
gium with King Albert as his keeper, or guillotined in 
Paris. 

We will have peace when the moustache of this 
Satanic vulture is combed down instead of up and the 
Stars and Stripes shall fly in victory's name from every 
flag-pole over every castle upon the Rhine. 

<^g» ©CI.A497683 '> 









— — 

WAR! WHY NOT? 



Old Glory has never yet touched the ground. We 
have unsheathed the sword for justice and for human- 
ity, in defence of our nation's honor and the safety 
of civilization. That sword will never be returned 
until Germany is beaten and might and force are no 
longer the measure of right. We have never lost a, 
battle. We will and must win this battle. We cannot 
lose ; we have never lost. 

Some simple-minded ginks in this country think that 
the Teutonic Tumble-bugs are going to win because 
they stick it out so long. Take it from me, the guy 
who is so intellectually obtuse as to think that Ger- 
many will win is a simple-minded boob. We are bleed- 
ing Germany to death. Even Macbeth had his Mac- 
duff and Caesar had his Brutus. When the war is over 
Wilhelm Hohenzollern will look like a sick cat that 
was out in the rain all night. "Die Wacht am Rhine" 
may yet have to be changed to "Die Schlacht am 
Rhine." 

On what doth this Kaiser feed that he has waxed 
so brazen, so mendacious, supercilious, presumptious, 
so egotistic- and so rapacious? 

Behold him riding on his firey stallion, faster than 
the fastest horse in hell. There he sits, that hound of 
hell, on his spirited steed. He addresses the Germanic 
army, the rapers of women, the massacrers of chil- 
dren, the devisers and users of poison gas, curtains of 
fire and divers other contrivances of hell. What does 
this plenipotentiary of hades say to the ambassadors 
of hell? "I and God are in this battle." Yes! "I" 
come first and God comes last. "I and God." Did 
you ever hear of such a ludicrous exhibition of exag- 
gerated egotism? Every time the Kaiser sees the 
Devil he thinks it's God. Methinks he is afflicted with 
mental astigmatism, causing him to suffer mistaken 
identity. 

He sits four thousand miles from here upon a ver- 
min-infested throne, beneath a moth-eaten, worm- 
eaten, mildewed, cankered and louse-ridden crown — 
surrounded by the Potsdam gang, the Junker pirates, 
and the Prussian huns. He violently itches with an 
insatiable ambition to materialize the dream of Han- 
nibal, of Alexander the Great, of Julius Caesar and of 
Napoleon — the dream of world-wide dominion. 



THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL ALLI- 
ANCE meets every Friday evening at 8 P. M., at 117 
West 132c! Street (near Lenox Ave.), New York City, 
for discussions on the Geometric Tax and kindred sub- 
jects. All sober-minded and patriotic persons, inter- 
ested in maintaining our „ Constitutional Government 
and supporting those morals which demand purity and 
honesty in legislative enactments, holding that Social- 
ism and Bolshevikism are not only inimical but de- 
structive to our ideals of Americanism, are most 
cordially welcomed. 

Send stamps for five books — "War! Why not?" 
"Dynamic Democracy," "The Menace of the I. W. W." 
"Americanism" and "Socialism." Ten cents each. 



MUGGING 

THE KAISER AND HIS PALS 
PART I 

We are at war with the most damnable cut-throat 
that ever lived ; with the biggest rough-neck of which 
history has any record; with the greatest outlaw that 
ever left his footprints in the sands of time. 

This war was forced upon us by an Imperial idiot, 
by an Aristocratic pediculous, by a Royal lunatic, by 
a Monarchical maniac — Kaiser Will-Hell of Prussia, 
the Beast of Berlin, the Royal bum of Germany. 

A God-forsaken, heathen-stricken r.nd benighted 
Prussian Prince, with a paralyzed arm, a diseased 
brain and a withered soul, J-ja^ plunged the world into 
a catastrophe of a hideously, grim reality — war. 

There can be no substantially abiding peace until 
this Lucifer of dynamic German Kultur — Schrecklich- 
keit — is taken by the scruff of the neck and the seat of 
the pants and his dirty, rotten, stinking, putrid carcass 
is cast into the Rhine river, or he is hung beneath a 
Linden tree in Germany, or made a prisoner in Bel- 
gium with King Albert as his keeper, or guillotined in 
Paris. 

We will have peace when the moustache of this 
Satanic vulture is combed down instead of up and the 
Stars and Stripes shall ily in victory's name from every 
Rag-pole over every castle upon the Rhine. 

<*@? ©CU497688 



k 6 






(D _ _ _ . 

<y WAR! WHY NOT? 



Old Glory has never yet touched the ground. We 
have unsheathed the sword for justice and for human- 
ity, in defence of our nation's honor and the safety 
of civilization. That sword will never be returned 
until Germany is beaten and might and force are no 
longer the measure of right. We have never lost a, 
battle. We will and must win this battle. We cannot 
lose ; we have never lost. 

Some simple-minded ginks in this country think that 
the Teutonic Tumble-bugs are going to win because 
they stick it out so long. Take it from me, the guy 
who is so intellectually obtuse as to think that Ger-* 
many will win is a simple-minded boob. We are bleed- 
ing Germany to death. Even Macbeth had his Mac- 
duff and Caesar had his Brutus. When the war is over 
Wilhelm Hohenzollern will look like a sick cat that 
was out in the rain all night. "Die Wacht am Rhine" 
may yet have to be changed to "Die Schlacht am 
Rhine." 

On what doth this Kaiser feed that he has waxed 
so brazen, so mendacious, supercilious, presumptious, 
so egotistic- and so rapacious? 

Behold him riding on his firey stallion, faster than 
the fastest horse in hell. There he sits, that hound of 
hell, on his spirited steed. He addresses the Germanic 
army, the rapers of women, the massacrers of chil- 
dren, the devisers and users of poison gas, curtains of 
fire and divers other contrivances of hell. What does 
this plenipotentiary of hades say to the ambassadors 
of hell? "I and God are in this battle." Yes! "I" 
come first and God comes last. "I and God." Did 
you ever hear of such a ludicrous exhibition of exag- 
gerated egotism? Every time the Kaiser sees the 
Devil he thinks it's God. Methinks he is afflicted with 
mental astigmatism, causing him to suffer mistaken 
identity. 

He sits four thousand miles from here upon a ver- 
min-infested throne, beneath a moth-eaten, worm- 
eaten, mildewed, cankered and louse-ridden crown — 
surrounded by the Potsdam gang, the Junker pirates, 
and the Prussian huns. He violently itches with an 
insatiable ambition to materialize the dream of Han- 
nibal, of Alexander the Great, of Julius Caesar and of 
Napoleon — the dream of world-wide dominion. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



The Kaiser as a real-estate crook is trying to rival 
William the Norman Conqueror. This agent of the In- 
ferno has drawn his sword and run amuck and seeks 
to reign supreme. We are fighting Teutonic militar- 
ism, German autocracy and Prussian bureaucracy. 

The fundamentals of Democracy are threatened, the 
essence of civilization has been outraged. Beautiful 
Venice and peace-loving Belgium have been raped. 
The grandest works of priceless art have been ruth- 
lessly shattered. 

The most magnificent cathedrals have been perfor- 
ated with German shells. Northern France lies deso- 
lated. Serbia, Poland and Roumania are shambles. 
Russia has been betrayed and seduced by the intellec- 
tual legerdemain and the camouflage of German 
Kultur. 

Thousands of our boys are "over there" now. Mil- 
lions more are going "over the top." 

"They won't come back until they're through over 
there." 

Mere prayer will not win this war, applause will not 
win it, oratorical pyrotechnics and elocutionary par- 
oxysms will not win it. 

What we need is life, force, action, spirit, vigilance. 
In other words, molasses. 

If we don't get some pep we will die of the pip. 

Our boys are now in action in the very trenches. 
Some are giving their arms, their legs, their eyes, their 
blood — yes, their very lives. Every thrift-stamp helps 
to get a War-Saving Stamp, and that means one more 
hair out of the Kaiser's moustache. 

Every fifty-dollar Liberty Bond means another nail 
in the Kaiser's coffin. Every hundred means another 
Hun- dead . This is a war against an anachronistic 
form of government. 

We must fight and fight and fight until we win. 
Those at home constitute the second line of defense. 
The second line is as important as the first line. The 
two lines are complimentary. One cannot exist with- 
out the other. 

Those who cannot wear a uniform and must stay at 
home have sacred obligations and serious responsibil- 
ities to execute. "Government of the people, by the 
people, and for the people' cannot become a living. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



monumental, concrete and international reality until 
the Kaisers and Queens, the Czars and Sultans, the 
Dukes and Princes, the Counts and Counts-of-No-Ac- 
count, and the Royal bums and loafers including the 
whole gang of blue-blooded, aristocratic, snobbish 
pieces of monarchical antique furniture are cast in the 
junk heap and the common man rules. 

PART II 

When the governments shall derive their just 
powers to govern from the consent of the governed, 
then swords can be turned into plow-shares and prun- 
ing hooks. Then liberty will walk the streets of the 
world bold and unafraid. Then we will have the 
dawning of the day of international human liberty — 
the belated coming of the Prince of Peace, the fulfill- 
ment of the dream of Tennyson, "the federation of the 
world, the parliament of man." 

But to-day we are righting to defend the ethical 
growth of two thousand years. Everything that God 
looked upon and was well pleased with, is being dese- 
crated and devastated by the hordes of barbarians. 
The Kaiser told Gerard that ' Germany would stand for 
no nonsense from us when the war is over ; and by the 
eternal God, we will stand for no Kaiser when this 
war is over. The Kaiser broke the people and made) 
war. The people will break the Kaiser and make 
peace. Think not that this war is only across the big 
pond. Right here in these United States we have a 
lot of 'friends of the Kaiser, who go around with their 
egg-shaped heads, phony pompadours, melancholy 
looks, soft-collar shirts and big black neckties, vomit- 
ing forth their diarrhetic diatribe. They preach trea- 
son and sedition, shout "to hell with the flag" and "to 
hell with the government." They seek to discourage 
enlistment and endeavor to encourage desertion. They 
are as welcome in this nation as a pork chop is in a 
Jewish restaurant or a' beef stew in a Catholic family 
on Friday. They are the unpatriotic element in this 
country. A bunch that is ninety-nine per cent patri- 
otic is just like a fish that is ninety-nine per cent fresh. 
You can only notice one per cent of it and that don't 
smell good. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



That one per cent is the half-starved, brain-shriv- 
elled, lickspittle, blatherskite, mountebank, atheistic, 
demagogic, Socialistic, anarchistic, pussy-footed, 
white-livered, chicken-hearted, yellow-streaked con- 
glomeration of hypocritical, intellectual job lots, who 
plague the moral world like small-pox, and scarlet 
fever plague the physical world. 

Some of these pseudo, shyster, high-browed and 
crack-brained philosophers were born in this country, 
but most of them came from foreign shores. They 
brought with them a philosophy that had its birth in 
the rat-holes of European civilization. 

These offshoots from the pest-holes of Europe came 
here of their own free will. Nobody forced them to 
come here. They heard this country heralded trum- 
pet-tongued from the house-tops to the farthest ends 
and innermost recesses of civilization as "the land of 
the free and the home of the brave," as "Columbia the 
gem of the ocean," as a haven of refuge for the down- 
trodden and oppressed. If they thought that they made 
a mistake in their choice, why did they not pack up 
their bag and baggage and go back from whence they 
came and enjoy the luxuries they had before they saw 
America? 

They came here and they enjoyed free speech, free 
press and took advantage of our liberties and oppor- 
tunities. They saved up their money by living below 
the standard of American living. They lived on a 
hunk of rye bread, some black tea and a herring. Then 
they were wont to go on board a ship, put their fingers 
to their nose and have the brazen effrontery and un- 
mitigated audacity to tell us to go to a place where 
ice-cream, snow-balls and skating is unknown and im- 
possible. 

Throughout this land you will find that species of 
characteristic, typical Socialistic, anarchistic soap- 
boxer. The only use they have for soap, is the boxes 
the soap comes in. 

Friends of the Bolsheviki, they are the ilk that claims 
to have sprung from the soil. They must have taken 
some of the soil with them when they sprang. The 
war is over here as well as "over there." If you hear 
a suspicious remark and witness a suspicious action 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



on the part of any individual, make a note of the inci- 
dent, secure the name and address of the party or fol- 
low him to secure information as to where such party 
is located. Send your information to the United 
States Department of Justice. They welcome such 
co-operation. The Department of Justice receives a 
lot of such information. They admit that most of it 
cannot be used and yet they welcome it because they 
and not you should be the judge of the value of such 
information. 

The Kaiser has many friends in this country who are 
faithfully, conscientiously and diligently serving the 
weiner- wursting, sour-krouting, beer-guzzling, hot-dog 
gang of Germany. 

Who is it that is sending our piers up in smoke, 
reducing our sugar refineries to ashes, dynamiting mu- 
nition plants, burning our factories, setting on fire our 
grain fields, putting glass in bread, putting glass in 
candy, maliciously and wilfully wasting food, putting 
cocaine, heroin and morphine in the whiskey given to 
our soldiers and sailors, and who is it, I ask, that is 
poisoning our cattle? 

It is done by the Huns, by Teutonic spies, by friends 
of the Kaiser. They should not be interned in prison, 
but they should be interned in coffins. Any man who 
says one friendly word for Germany should be shot, 
hung or sent to prison. We have in this nation a lot 
of those who have a divided allegiance, a twofold al- 
legiance. They call themselves German-Americans. I 
mean the hyphenated American ; the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde American. The type of now you see it and 
now you don't. When you think they are, they're not, 
when you think they're not, they are. 

Did you ever go in a street car, or did you ever go) 
out in public and see a fellow reading a German daily 
paper? Did your blood boil at the sight of it? Did 
you feel like going over and tearing it out of his 
hands? Did you ever feel that way? Well,, if you 
did then you are an Americanized American — at least 
that is an evidence of it. I would not patronize a man 
who sells German papers. You don't have to patron- 
ize a man who sells German papers. Do you think 
that a man who sells German papers is worthy of the 



8 WAR! WHY NOT? 

patronage of loyal Americans? Do you think so? 
Well, I don't. We want one country, one flag and 
one language—- the English language. We want the 
good old language of the U. S. A. — we love it and we 
cherish it. Let us hope to see the day when sedition- 
ists and treason-mongers are dealt with more drasti- 
cally and stringently. 
• Every person who directly or indirectly interferes 
with the military operations of the United States, or 
who by word or act attempts to interfere with the 
unity, efficiency and integrity of the Allies, should be 
handed over to the military authorities and if found 
guilty, should be taken out at sunrise, lined up against 
a stone wall and shot by a firing squad. Germanism 
is an insidious disease that runs to the marrow of the 
bone, sometimes to the third and fourth generation, 
like syphilis. 

The I. W. W.— the Imperial Warriors of Wilhelm — 
are on the job. Billy Sunday said they were bums.' 
B-u-m, Bum. Of course that is not a pedantic phrase, 
it might grate on the sensibilities of an intellectual 
snob, you see; it isn't indicative of a scholarly state 
of mind. It is a crude colloquialism. It is speaking 
in the vernacular — in current slang. The dictionary 
defines bum as a loafer. If a bum is a loafer and a 
loafer is a slacker and a slacker is a Socialist, then the 
Socialist is a bum. 

Let me conclude with a little poem by Colonel Bun- 
ner, the President of the Toledo, Ohio, Stock Ex- 
change. He recited this poem from the Land Battle- 
ship at Union Square. It is dedicated to the consci- 
entious objector, to those who act like a lot of colonial 
dames playing bean bag in a weedy lot back of an 
orphan asylum. It is not as classical as The Lady of 
the Lake, or Childe Harold, or The Raven, or The 
Rape of the Locke, or The Ancient Mariner, or The 
Song of the Shirt. 

"This is the tale of the mob I saw 
Trying to defy the conscription law. 
Bums in front and bums behind, 
Bums of every conceivable kind. 
Bums that were poor and bums that were rich, 
Bums that were dirty and bums with the itch, 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



Socialist, anarchist, slacker and sneak, 
Faces impertinent, brazen and weak ; 
Eager and anxious to hide behind 
Any old skirt of any old kind, 
Massed the steps of the City Hall, 
Crowding and pushing until ready to drop, 
Not an Irishman present excepting the cop." 

So let's get on the job and consign the whole bunch 
into oblivion ; let's relegate them into the limbo of the 
unknown ; let's send them into innocuous desuetude. 
Now that we have stripped the Kaiser to his naked- 
ness, revealing his true inwardness— this is the 
MORAL: 

If the Kaiser is fifty per cent Mephistopheles and 
fifty per cent Lucifer cemented with brimstone — 
where does he get off? 

PART III 

These are tempestuously bellicose days. All hands 
are needed on deck. We want no shirkers, no slack- 
ers, no pikers and no rummies. What is requisite at 
this moment is action. The problem before us is a 
most simple one. Shall the accumulated moral growth 
of the ages survive and thrive, or shall an atavistic 
horde of cave philosophers obliterate such achieve- 
ment. 

It is pathetic to note the existence of Rip Van 
Winkle sophists who seem to be utterly oblivious to 
the appalling predicament confronting us. This nation 
is plagued by cloud-soaring theories advanced by 
bumptious venders of intellectual poison-gas bombs. 

This gas was made in Germany. It was hatched, 
concocted and reared in Heidelberg University. It 
was labelled Socialism, and the Devil was well pleased 
and all hell smiled because it was made in Germany. 
Its meritricious adornments cleverly concealed its ulti- 
mate purpose. On the day of its birth the Emperor 
of Germany dined with his Satanic majesty. They 
winked at one another, occasionally they smiled, they 
talked at length and the pact was sealed. 

It was agreed to spill Socialism around the world. 
Pacifism was to be its keynote. 

"Peace, Peace, Peace! Nations of the world, lay 



io WAR! WHY NOT? 

down your arms !" That was to be the litany of this 
wolf in sheep's clothing. 

Socialism waxed fat in Germany and with it mili- 
tarism grew faster and ever faster. 

Socialism continued in its cleverly and fiendish de- 
signed plan in preaching peace, peace, peace. 

Socialists of Germany boasted that the Kaiser could 
foment no war, command no army, and that he was 
taken as a joke. 

The Kaiser with his sense of humor encouraged 
their delusion by the fact of his silence. 

Then the psychological moment arrived and Ger- 
many heard the bugle of war. 

The conspiracy of Hell and Berlin were productive. 
The nations were not prepared. Germany, the strong- 
est Socialistic nation in the whole world was the most 
highly developed military monstrosity. 

The consummate genius of German Kultur was sum- 
moned. The German people had developed with:' 
themselves a form of unconscious gullibility which 
found its source in the servile state. This gullibility 
was fostered further by the fact that German Kultur 
cultivated a fetichism of an obsolete form of govern- 
ment which was based upon the pseudo doctrine that 
the Kaiser was a relatively historical necessity. 

The net result was that we were caught like rats 
in a trap. 

But the secret of our strength lies in our ideals. 
Ideals that are not founded on a mess of pottage guar- 
anteed by a servile state. 

Germany is confronted with the inflamed spirit of 
fighters whose ideals are those of a free people and 
liberty-loving nations. 

A certain species of anthropoids so typical prior to 
the advent of this war is rapidly becoming extinct. 

The Pithecanthropus Erectus is indeed a quite in- 
teresting specimen in paleontology. But just before 
that ultra-mellow pimple of the Hohenzollern family 
took occasion to spill his puss of barbarism, we were 
sorely plagued with a tribe of mentally debilitated 
mutts, and remnants of driftwood. 

We had with us the fop, the simp, the prig, and the 
coxcomb. We had with us that yellow-stain-fingered, 
crimp-stick- sucker who was wont to stand at the street 



WAR! WHY NOT? n 

corners, smoke Meccas, eight rides to heaven for a 
nickel, and spit at an angle of forty-five degrees. 

His education in reference to a philosophy of life was 
acquired from such imperishable classics as Diamond 
Dick, Buffalo Bill, Jessie James, Luck and Pluck, 
Work and Win. 

Then, also, we must not forget that talcum-powd- 
ered, marshmallow-nosed, super-selfconscious damsel. 
The article that's powdered and puffed, padded and 
painted, rouged and shellaced, white-washed and cal- 
cimined, varnished and enamelled, with penciled eye- 
brows, tinselled eye-lashes, bella-donna eyes, spit curls,, 
fly-by-night beauty spots, rats, switches, phony 
tresses, fake curls, even such as she, is emancipating 
herself from the spineless and vapid frivolity of a pur- 
poseless existence. 

The painted doll is vanishing. War with its atmos- 
phere of a serious demeanor is making extinct the 
fluffy-ruffle type of a veritable imitation of an Egyp- 
tian mummy. Myriads of those whose appearance 
suggested that they had been prepared by an under- 
taker — really they looked uncanny — the kind that if 
you kissed them you'd be apt to die of painter's colic 
or lead-poisoning; these are all a vanishing set. 

The black-sheep of the family, the good-for-nothin', 
has become good for somethin'. . He is in the army or 
the navy. He's a man's man now. He's a man 
amongst men now. 

The girl? Oh, she's selling thrift stamps, or she's 
active with the Red Cross. She too is doing her bit. 
It's the makin' of a man and the makin' of a woman. 

The whole country is assuming a distinct, martial 
and military atmosphere. We are all agreed that the 
Hun must be canned and that we will have no peace 
until we put the kibosh on the Kaiser. 

We will have abiding peace when the Von Hinden- 
bergs, the Von Tirpitzs, the Von Hertlings and the 
Von Bernstoffs have the aristocratic part of their name 
deleted — when we cut off the V-O-N. Their names 
will be deleted when their forces are depleted. 

The days of Germany's defeat will be the hour of 
social redemption for the German people. Perhaps our 
beloved President Woodrow Wilson will then help 
them to establish a democratic form of government — 



12 WAR! WHY NOT? 



yes, indeed, if need be, we might even loan them Teddy 
for a while. At this moment, however, it is quite idle 
to indulge in speculations. The immediate task at 
hand is war. 

That we are at war is a known fact to almost every- 
one, yet there are a few bipeds who act as if they 
were not wise to this fact. Really, some folks are so 
antediluvian, it would not be a surprise to me if they 
did not know that the Civil War was over. Then 
again, it seems to be a fashion amongst a certain class 
of people— a sort of a cussed habit — to speak of the 
prime Hohenzollern oasis as the Devil's disciple. I 
reckon they mean by that that he's "some hell of a 
feller." 

Did you ever listen to a mentally debilitated mutt 
who vapors his commentaries in the form of surmises 
that the Kaiser will win? 

Of course, you've heard of the beggar on his way 
to Vanity Fair. Then also, about the hobo with not 
enough Indians to nip a bloke in a Bowery somnolence 
emporium. 

But say! By the way, did you ever accumulate a 
eustachean tube full of Cardinal Wolsey stuff? Re- 
member how in despair that guy threw up his hands 
and said something about, "Oh, my God! Why hast 
thou left me naked and alone in this world?" Imagine 
the Kaiser. Talk about naked and alone! Why, he 
won't have a shirt to his name when the war is over. 

We mean business. Long enough did we suffer 
humiliation, because we are a peace-loving people. 

We were too proud to fight. Ah! But mark this 
and mark it well, we were not afraid to fight. 

We were too proud to fight in the sense that our 
faith in the ethical development of civilization was so 
great that we hoped to come to an understanding by 
reason of instead of resorting to physical force. 

But we had it revealed to us that we could not settle 
matters that way with the author of a deluxe edition 
of paganism and the ne plus ultra of savagery. 

Promises were broken. Notes were regarded as 
scraps of paper — a sort of papier-mache. The Kaiser 
took up the sword and he shall perish by the sword. 

Moral — He who spills a mess he can't wipe up will 
get the dirty end of the stick. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 



I. 



The whole world to-day is longing for peace ; men 
are hoping and speculating on the prospects of it ; pol- 
iticians are trying to scheme for its speedy arrival ; 
clergymen are praying for it ; agitators are discussing 
it from every standpoint. America wants peace, the 
onlooking nations of Europe and Asia want peace, 
and, strange as it may seem to say, even the nations 
engaged in the war want peace; but each nation fears 
that if it should surrender, it would not secure true 
peace at all, but would suffer tremendous loss ^conse- 
quently it is fighting for peace. Many minds in this 
country, that were hitherto engaged in various intel- 
lectual pursuits and projects, are now directing their 
genius toward the war question and its solution. And 
just as the ancient Greek states of Attica, Laconia, etc. 
quarreled among themselves, but all united against 
the common enemy, Cyrus, with his Persian host, so 
it is that many factions in this country and elsewhere 
that have hitherto quarreled among themselves intel- 
lectually and politically, now unite in one voice of 
protest against that common enemy of mankind — war ! 

Since, then, all are interested in this great prob- 
lem, we here endeavor to lay down our considerations 
on war, and to state, in the few pages afforded, what 
factors we believe should be nourished, and what 
steps should be taken to bring about universal and 
permanent peace. In the first place, therefore, it will 



14 WAR! WHY NOT? 

be necessary to look just for a moment into the ques- 
tion, what has been or is the cause of war? We 
have every reason to believe that no thinking man to- 
day would maintain that war is an orderly phenome- 
non of nature. That the good God who made every- 
thing in the universe so regular, so exact, so useful, 
even down to the tiniest plant and insect, and all so 
obviously for man's higher good, should directly undo 
the work of his own making and in such an unscien- 
tific and ungodly way, is most incredible. Even 
plagues and tornadoes can be construed to have a 
wholesome and medicinal purpose. But War seems 
to have no such virtue. But when stating this we 
must not forget that the battlefield offers a wonderful 
opportunity for the practice of heroism, for love of 
country, for obedience and self-sacrifice, for manly 
daring and courage, for patience in suffering and 
preparation for a happy death. War has not infre- 
quently reclaimed the drunkard and the vagabond, 
and has developed from them the most surprising re- 
sults in heroic acts. Nevertheless, when properly 
weighed, war presents more evil than good ; and the 
good is accidental, while the evil is essential. There- 
fore we say that war is not a part of Nature's de- 
signs. 

If Nature then is not and cannot be responsible for 
war, how are we to account for it? We believe it 
can only be rightly explained by mans' free will and 
deliberate action. Look around about you on every 
side and see what man has made of himself as an in- 
dividual. Note the healthy, vigorous man and there 
you will see the man who has combined a sound con- 
stitution with a reasonable living — both of which are 
of Nature. But the degenerate is the man who has 



WAR! WHY NOT? 15 

himself ruined what strength and health that Nature 
first gave him. In other words, we believe that all 
things (that is, of Nature) tend in themselves to be 
good ; otherwise there would be more evil in the world 
than good, and the world itself would cease to exist 
or go into chaos. But the fact that men do live and 
get along, even if imperfectly, shows that more in Na- 
ture is in our favor than against us. Nature, if un- 
hampered, will take care of herself and man, too, for 
that matter. It is always man who introduces real 
evil, not Nature. Yet we are frequently told by men 
who like to call themselves students and scholars, 
that war is brought about by ''certain laws or forces, 
working in that direction." It sounds scientific; don't 
you know? And that has the desired effect. But in- 
deed they are speaking in very vague terms. Pre- 
cisely, man has brought on war, like he has brought 
on so many other calamities, by maliciously arrang- 
ing a combination of the forces which Nature gave 
him for altogether different purposes. When we say 
that if man lives naturally, he will live peacefully, we 
don't at all mean that he should blindly follow every 
impulse that suggests itself to him. Just as a man 
would not throw himself before the storm to be anni- 
hilated by the elements, but would use his reason to 
protect himself and to make those very elements his 
servants, so, instead of allowing himself to be over- 
come by the storms of passion which arise in his soul, 
he should use his reason to turn his passions into very 
useful servants. This, like any other work that is 
worth while, requires perseverance and manliness. 
Thus, reason is a necessary part of Nature ; and those 
men who depart from reason and Nature for the sake 



16 WAR! WHY NOT? 

of experiencing thrills and momentary sensations and 
gratifying their immediate impulses and pet passions, 
are those who have no right to look for peace. Truly 
I may say of peace what Jules Payot has said of lib- 
erty: that it is neither a right, nor a privilege, but a 
reward. A reward paid and paid certainly to those 

who labor for it.* 

The man, too, who believes in the blind evolution 
of material forces, with absolutely no design, can 
never hope for peace, because where man has no free 
will and the elements rule alone, whatever is, is right. 
Therefore, if war exists, it is a necessary part of the 
evolution that has made things what they are, and, 
therefore, what they should be; it (war) is a neces- 
sity ; and it will cease only when the forces of evolu- 
tion will bring about a new set of conditions. Mean- 
while we shall sit down and fold our arms and simply 
wait for peace. But for us, who believe that man has a 
free will and is largely responsible for many conditions, 
there is every reason for hope, invention and activity. 

We have seen, then, that man, by applying reason 
(which is of Nature) to the instinctive faculties of 
Nature, must cause peace. We lay this down if not 
with mathematical, at least with ordinary scientific 
certainty. Now how does this principle apply to the 
present war? The answer is and must be that those 
who have ordered the present war (not necessarily all 
those engaged) have long since departed from moral 
rectitude, or at least from correct thinking. 

It must not be understood that just so many capi- 
talists wilfully get together and deliberately seek war 
for their own direct ends. No. But since men have 
so long forgotten the dictates of morality, and have 
plunged into such gross materialism as to seek com- 



WAR! WHY NOT? 17 

mercial world-markets at any price (even that of their 
own souls) it is not very surprising that they should 
in their desperation, grope, more or less unconsciously, 
for state help and military protection. But if, in the 
first place, they had truly appreciated the duty they 
owed to neighbor, they never should have gone so far 
as to lose their heads in this mad commercial whirl 
and dash for millions. Thus, having respected the 
rights of others, even at their own material expense, 
they never would have approached an emergency 
where they would care to enlist the help of the sword 
and the cannon. Hence we insist that the weak- 
ening of man's moral vision and the blunting of 
his should-be nice sense of right and wrong (namely, 
his conscience) is at the bottom of the present 
war. 

Here we are told by men who have long desired to 
vent their hate upon that great conscience of the 
world, Christianity, that Christianity itself is respon- 
sible for the present war. First, let us ask these gen- 
tlemen what are the principles of Christianity? Do 
they know? Have they given this a thought? ''Thou 
shalt love the Lord, thy God, with thy whole soul" 
etc., "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," "Love 
your enemies, do good to them that hate you," 
"Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called 
the children of God." Are such maxims as these, 
when properly carried out, conducive to war and 
strife? or are they not rather conducive to peace and 
prosperity? My dear friends, don't come to a too 
hasty conclusion. Don't be deceived by what looks 
like Christianity. Christ himself foretold that there 
would arise false Christs and false prophets ; that they 
would say, "Behold, he is here," "Behold, he is in the 



18 WAR! WHY NOT? 

closet !" Don't be deceived because men may and do 
call themselves Christians or are called so by others, 
even though such men attend church regularly. "Not 
everyone that saith to me, 'Lord, Lord !' shall enter 
into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the 
will of My Father, who is in Heaven, he shall enter 
the Kingdom of Heaven." Christianity we know has 
many a time been the cloak and seeming excuse for 
the most atrocious crimes ; but so has Liberty, and so 
has Justice, and so has Democracy. When men make 
counterfeits or imitations, they always imitate some- 
thing that's worth while, that is, if they are wise. The 
very fact that hundreds of millions throughout the 
world to-day call themselves Christians, and their an- 
cestors before them for nearly two thousand years, in 
sunshine as in sorrow, proves pretty conclusively that 

Christianity and Christian are names that must have 
some virtue in them. But we ask you if you think 
that a true Christian spirit would for a moment tol- 
erate the bombardment of a cathedral, the very tem- 
ple of the God of the Christians? 

Do I hear some one insist that Christianity advo- 
cates war? Why, reader, whether you be Christian 
or infidel, the very hatred you bear towards war is the 
result of nothing else but Christian teaching in the 
past centuries. War, you may say, after all these 
centuries is still harsh and cruel. That is true. But 
it is considered more or less an unavoidable calamity 
to be ended as soon as possible. But it was not so in 
Pagan Rome where the warrior went forth with the 
avowed purpose of conquest, and where, for the sake 
of gratifying the appetites of the cultured class — the 
Caesars and their nobility — the amphitheatres were 
thrown open to the cruel sports of torturing poor 
dumb beasts, of slaughtering prisoners of war, of mu- 



WAR! WHY NOT? 19 

tilating gladiators, and where the thirsty arena drank 
copiously of the blood of innocent Christian martyrs, 
who underwent the most detailed and prolonged tor- 
ments amid the exultant cries and rejoicings of the 
most refined men, women and children that Rome at 
that time produced. How different is the attitude of 
the world to-day ! So different indeed that our press, 
greedy as ever for thrilling pictures and extraordinary 
accounts, does not dare relate the horrors of the 
present war, much less present us with photographs 
of the awful massacre. This, along with the work ac- 
complished by the great peace tribunal of modern and 
mediaeval Rome, has been one of the many phases of 
Christianity's mission ; a mission that for the most 
part has .been carried on by the millions of silent 
workers down the ages, who have devoted their life's 
action and their life's blood to the cause of peace, 
rather than expend their lung power for the cause, as 
some of our "modern" friends are doing. 

Thus it can easily be seen that the real principles 
of Christianity, if correctly carried out, would bring 
about an era of universal and permanent peace. 
Don't tell me that it is impossible to put these into 
practice under the present or any other system. This 
is the excuse of the delinquent ; the pretext of the 
reprobate. The sincere character says, "I'll try, and if 
I can't do all I'd like to, yet I'll, do my best, I'll do my 
little share." And oh, if everyone only did his best, 
just his little share (and we can all do something) I 
dont' care how little, what a bright, happy world this 
would be, even with all its other faults ! Don't tell 
me that one can't be good because conditions pre- 
vent ; history gives the lie direct to this discouraging 
theory. Not only have there been great men in the 



20 WAR! WHY NOT? 

past whose lives shone forth with surprising bril- 
liance, but to-day there are thousands, yes, tens of 
thousands, if not millions, who are living respectable, 
and ,in many of these cases, virtuous lives despite the 
economic conditions around them. I speak as one 
who has associated with such as have had extensive 
experience with the poor, and, therefore, as one who 
is not expressing a wish but stating a fact according 
to his evidence at hand. Don't tell me this is impos- 
sible ; haven't we seen men refusing certain work of- 
fered to them, merely because the terms did not just 
suit them? Haven't we seen the sons of well-to-do 
men actually starving, just because they had too 
much pride to return to their homes and beg pardon 
for their waywardness and desertion? Haven't we 
seen men (possibly innocent) willingly accept the 
electric chair, rather than "squeal" on any of their 
comrades? Surely, if men so devoid of moral educa- 
tion as to be found among murderers and thugs can 
suffer death itself for the sake of a principle, will you 
tell me that a man who is underpaid (but yet living 
and getting along) cannot also stand by a princi- 
ple : the principle of honesty, or the principle of 
purity? 

The trouble, however, with most of us is that we 
don't really live, we don't think, we don't act nor in- 
hale the atmosphere of vitality and the thousand nat- 
ural joys ul a nappy and contented soul. This is es- 
pecially true in the large cities, where men merely eke 
out an existence. Nor is it fair to say that this is 
true of the poor alone. The rich and many of the 
middle class are just as wretched in this respect. 
Rich and poor alike, most of us are ever seeking some 
exterior entertainment to drown out our own wretch- 



WAR! WHY NOT? 21 



eclness within. If more men sought their enjoyment 
in self and the development of character (which, after 
all, gives the truest kind of happiness) there would 
be little need of reform agitation. Christian princi- 
ples then, we can very plainly see, have not been — 
could not be — responsible for such anti-Christian re- 
sults as the present conflict. 

Moreover, it must be remembered that for many 
years the attitude of a great many men has been that 
of a boast, the boast that the yoke and power of 
Christianity has been overthrown in modern times; 
that the "Dark Ages" w T ere now past ; that to-day we 
were living in an age of enlightenment, "emancipated 
from the superstitions and prejudices" of religion and 
dogma. A prominent citizen of one of the now war- 
ring nations exulted some time ago over the wonderful 
accomplishment, that he had "driven God out of" his 
native land. Hence the men who are really directing 
this gigantic, bloody enterprise, not necessarily the 
political figure heads, the apparent rulers, but the 
men back of the scenes who want the war for their 
own selfish interests are not, nor cannot be Chris- 
tians, although it may benefit some of them to pose 
as such. 

There is a justification for war under one condi- 
tion : namely that of self-defense. So obvious is this 
fact that every nation now engaged in the war claims 
to be on the defensive as a justification for its action. 
There are some who hold that war is not justifiable 
under any conditions whatever. But let us ask any 
one of these gentlemen what he would do, if he and 
his family were suddenly attacked by a band of out- 
laws? Would he defend himself? Would he defend 
his wife? Would he defend Jiis little ones? Would 



22 WAR! WHY NOT? 

he defend his aged father or his poor old mother? 
Or would he stand by and allow them to be brutally 
beaten, robbed of jewelry and other valuables, precious 
because of association, and even perhaps cruelly put 
to death? And will you tell me that any citizen who 
loves his fellow-citizens and their national honor and 
welfare, will not be prompt to defend his hearth and 
home, his altars and institutions? This, in my mind, 
is the spirit of the patriot — a spirit pre-eminently of 
love and not, as some would have it seem, of hate. 
And so it is of gross injustice to blame or criticise 
those who, from the bottom of their hearts, are de- 
fending their cherished rights and who are trying to 
keep off what they believe to be the aggressor (mis- 
taken as they might be).* 

But the fact that war is sometimes permissible ap- 
peals to many diplomats as a timely excuse for the 
satisfaction of their commercial greed, and they there- 
fore hurl millions into eternity and then seek to jus- 
tify themselves by claiming that they are on the de- 
fensive. 

It must be remembered that these diplomats hardly 
realize that they have ever desired war. Their act is 
one of unconscious self-protection which is the result 
of their own previous carelessness and greed. (See 
first paragraph, page 8). 

*Note. — Christ's injunction "If thy brother strike thee on 
one cheek, turn him the other" we feel can only be rightly in- 
terpreted to mean that all should be free from the spirit of 
hatred, revenge and retaliation, and can not be construed to 
forbid defense, whether of principle, of country or of self. 
Christ did not say, "If thy brother strike thy sister or thy 
mother on one cheek, turn him the other." In fact He Him- 
self exemplifies the defense of sacred things, notably in driving 
the money-changers out of the Temple. War for defense is 
not necessarily hatred or revenge. It is not at all necessary 
that a man should hate the force that attacks him, whether it 
be fire, floods, wild beasts or men. It is merely an expedient 
disposal, of a dangerous power. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 23 



II. 



From a standpoint of antiquity and out-of-date-ness 
there is a queer little book I have now in mind, that 
offers a very interesting topic for a moment's consid- 
eration. I refer to George Ross Kirkpatrick's "War 
— What For?" The author of it no doubt intended in 
this book, like so many other Socialist writers and 
speakers have, to make propaganda for the Socialist 
movement by advocating anti-militarism. Mr. Kirk- 
patrick opens his treatise thusly :* 

Suppose that upon the declaration of war, all the railway 
trainmen, or all the telegraphers, or all the coal miners of both 
countries should boldly say, ". . .If you do not recall your 
declaration of war immediately, we shall at once quietly and 
peacefully fold our arms and thus (in loyalty to OUR CLASS) 
we shall stall every railway train in these two countries (ex- 
cept those carrying milk for children) till you (on the firing 
line) bare your breasts to hell's sleet from the Gatling-guns." 

"Suppose!" Mr. Kirkpatrick. Why suppose? Why 
not say and then act? In the first chapter of your 
very interesting, little, ancient manuscript, you have 
most manfully said :f 

I refuse to assassinate you (class brothers) and then hide 
my stained fists in the folds of any flag. I refuse to be flat- 
tered into hell's nightmare by a class of well fed snobs, crooks 
and cowards. 

You "refuse," eh? Another supposition? Or did 
you mean that you were really prepared to follow 
your cause through thick' and thin? Again you say:* 

In going to war — I must turn against my own working class 
and thus make an ass and a cat's-paw of myseli. 

A little over one year ago one of the "class broth- 
ers" defiantly exclaimed :f 



* War— What For? 1910 Edition, p. 3. 
tlbid., p. 11. 



24 WAR! WHY NOT? 

I would not enlist for such a war (i.e. : the possible Mexican 
War) and if I should bs drafted I would refuse to serve. This 
may be seditious, but if it is sedition, then bring on your Dick 
law. I am not afraid. 

Now listen to that great oracle of American So- 
cialist wisdom, the "New York Call" :J 

The one thing that will abolish war h the workingmen re- 
fusing to fight. . . . Socialism holds the peace of the world in 
its hands to-day. . . . The plutocrats, doddering and senile, 
may go on bankrupting themselves purchasing fighting gear, but 
it is up to the Socialists to see that it is not used. 

THIS IS WHAT THE SOCIALISTS SAID BE- 
FORE THE WAR. Now what did they DO? They 
simply went to war, defended their avowed enemies, 
the so-called "capitalistic" governments of the world, 
and, in some cases, with a spirit of willingness and 
volition Tiat is not a little surprising. "The Vor- 
waerts j the leading organ of Socialism in Germany, 
and some kindred Socialist papers, actually appealed 
to the comrades in that country in support of their 
native land, as follows : 

The Kaiser has shown himself the friend of universal peace. 
. . . In the case of the present law it is the duty of every 
Social Democrat (i.e., Socialist) to do his best fighting beside 
his fellow-countrymen, especially when operations are directed 
against Russia. We urge comrades to set aside the aims and 
purposes of their party and have just one fact in mind: that 
Germany, and, in a large sense, all Europe, is endangered by 
Russian despotism. Every Social Democrat will be expected to 
do his duty toward his fatherland, culture and humanity. 

Gustave Herve, the Socialist who forced himself 
into the French war service, despite his physical dis- 
ability, is reported to have come out in his paper, 
"La Guerre Social"* with a long article headed: 

National Defense Firs". .They Have Assassinated Jaures ; 
We Will Not Assassinate France. 



*Ibid, p. 12. 

1'From Chas. E. Russell, candidate for governor and later for 
mayor of N. Y. in liis speech at Carnegie Hall, April 21 \ 
1914, quoted in the N. Y. Times the following day, 

^Editorial, July 20, 1 ( )14. 

§N. Y. Times, Aug. ZS, 1914. ' 



WAR! WHY NOT? 25 



Since the beginning of the war, we have heard no 
word of protest from the European Socialists about 
their being called to the front. About the middle of 
March of this year, Liebknecht and Ledebour, two 
members of the German Reichstag,f criticised some 
plans of the German arm)', but even then Ledebour 
made clear that he spoke before this assembly "as a 
Socialist and a German patriot." "I have done this," 
he said, "in the interest of my beloved Fatherland and 
of Europe." The Socialist Deputy, Philip "Scheide- 
mann, said that the Socialists had the same grounds 
for voting the war credits as they had on Aug. 4 and 
Dec. 2, and would vote for the budget." It must be 
remembered too that war appropriations were voted 
for by the Socialists in the Reichstag several months 
before war was declared.* 

THIS IS WHAT THE SOCIALISTS DID. Now 
comes (how do they explain their action?) Allan L. 
Benson,f one of the leading American "class broth- 
ers" is reported to have said: 

Socialists are human ; they are home-lovers. Like every- 
body else, they resent attacks upon their respective countries. 
Wherever we were — in Germany, France or Belgium — we had 
the ordinary white man's hatred of invasion ; and the war came 
on so suddenly that we had no opportunity to meet and ex- 
change views. Given a month's notice, the Socialists of Ger- 
many might have united with the Socialists of France to resist 
war, even to the extent of martyrdom. 

The best of all the comments on the situation, how- 
ever, is that of Mr. John R. McMahon, a prominent 
American Socialist, because it is most honest ; and we 
especially advise our readers to examine the whole of 
this article, which appears in the weekly paper, the 
"Independent" of October 12th, 1914, of which we 
here quote in part. Mr. McMahon says: 

*N. Y. Call, Aug. 21, 1914. 

tN. Y. Times and N. Y. Sun, March 21, 1915. 



26 WAR! WHY NOT? 



Not an apology nor an excuse for European Socialism will 
bear examination. "We had not agreed upon a practical anti- 
war program." A dereliction to excuse a crime ; you violated a 
cardinal principle, the spirit, if not the statutory letter. "We 
would have been shot if we had refused military service." Bet- 
ter shot for the Cause than alive for Capitalism. . . . "Socialists 
are not martyrs." Then they should quit mouthing "revolution." 
A little Socialist martyrdom, a few thousand Socialists shot for 
refusing to be traitors, would have saved a world of horror. 
"If we had not gone with tide, we would have lost our influ- 
ence." \ our influence is forever gone, except as henchmen of 
the ruling class. . . . You cannot plead ignorance. You have 
the light. You act deliberately. . . . 

"What explanation, not excuse, for a collossally lamentable 
situation may be given, consists firstly in the inherent character 
of the Socialist movement. It is a movement of the proleta- 
riat and partakes of the weakness, ignorance, sentimental enthu- 
siasm and inefficiency of the proletariat. It especially attracts 
cranks, failures and weaklings. It is a hospital for cripples, and 
a haven for the feebly discontented and the visionary. . . . 

"±\ weak and incompetent proletariat has produced leaders 
of its own sort, dry rotted parliamentarians, talkers of great 
brilliance and no practical ability. Always orators never practi- 
cal men. American as well as European Socialists have chosen 
as their speakers the best and noisiest talkers. These talkers 
iiave proved worse than worthless in a great crisis.* 

THIS IS HOW THE SOCIALISTS EXPLAIN 
WHAT THEY DID. The whole cause for Social- 
ism's great failure, at least in my mind, is that they 
never taught individual morality, never insisted upon 
the great importance of personality and of leadership, 
refused to recognize any considerable form of central- 
ized authority, and never inculcated the importance 
of placing principle above material gain, especially 
when they held that there is, in all probability, no 
hereafter, and therefore, a man is to gain his all right 
down here. 



Note: N. Y. Call, September 8th, 1914, report one-third of 
the German army to be socialists. And yet Socialists tell us 
that they were too weak to resist. 

'•Herman Ridder, Staats Zeitung, Autumn, 1914. 
tNorth American, Philadelphia, Sept. 15, 1914. 



WAR! WHY NOT? 27 



But do Socialists really object to war and blood- 
shed after all? Let us refer to the Socialists them- 
selves on this point, queer as it may seem. John 
Spargo,* a leading American Socialist, has written : 

I am not oppos d to sabotage because of any love of law 
and order, or because of any regard for the rights of property. 
... If the class to which I belong could be set free from ex- 
ploitation by violation of the laws made by the master class, by 
open rebellion, by seizing the property of the rich, or setting the 
torch to a few buildings, or by the summary execution of a few 
members of the possessing class, I hope that the courage to 
share in the work should be mine. I should pray for the cour- 
age and hardness of heart necessary. 

Victor L. Berger,f a Socialist who has actually 
been elected Member of Congress from Wisconsin, 
has expressed himself in this view : 

In view of the plutocratic law-making of the present day, it 
is easy to predict that the safety and hope of this country will 
finally lie in one direction only — that of a violent and bloody 
revolution. Therefore, I say that each of the 500,000 Socialists 
and of the two million working men who instinctively incline 
our way, should, besides doing much reading and still more 
thinking, also have a good rifle and the necessary rounds of am- 
munition in his home, and be prepared to back up his ballot with 
his bullet, if necessary. 

Richard Perrin, a writer for the "New York Call,"{ 

stated it as follows: 

Let us acknowledge the truth frankly, and say we care not 
a peanut for the ethical aspects of the question: let us admit 
that our sole concern is the acquisition of political power in 
order to enable ourselves to win full economic power. Let us 
admit if crime (as defined by capitalist law) and violence are 
calculated to further the movement, we are prepared and will- 
ing to use them. 

Dr. Bouck White, in his debate* with Dr. John W. 

Hill, said: 

If violence would do the trick, there is no violence we 
would not resort to. If dynamite would blow from the earth 
the capitalist class, we would sell the coats from off our backs 
to-morrow to buy the dynamite with which to do it. (Com- 
ment: loud and prolonged applause.) 

^Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism and Socialism, pp. 172, 173. 
tSocial Democratic Herald, July 21, 1912, 
JN. Y. Call, June 11, 1912. 



28 WAR! WHY NOT? 

Frederick Engles,f one of the co-founders of So- 
cialism some half a century ago, stated: 

The proletarians in despair will seize the torch . . . the 
vengeance of the people will come down with a wrath of which 
the rage of 1793 gives no true idea. 

Again, the "Appeal to Reason," a Socialist paper 
claiming a million circulation, testifies as follows : 

Labor demands all the products of its hands — and it is go- 
ing to have them, let the consequences be what they will. It 
may cause the slaughter and massacre of millions. None has a 
right to live who will not help to produce the wealth that sus- 
tains the people of the planet. 

These are some of the testimonials from honest 
sources. On the other hand there exists a veritable 
horde of busy bees who do their utmost on all occa- 
sions to promote the cause of Socialism by any means 
at hand. When truth serves their purpose, they tell 
it, at the same time blowing their own horn and quot- 
ing a superabundance of statistics. When lying is 
necessary they use it, making up for argument by 
repetition of statement of boldness of assertion. They 
teach doctrines which range anywhere from slight so- 
cial reform to violent anarchism, according to the 
temperament of the person about to be converted to 
that thing to be called Socialism. This new line of 
tactics reminds me of the accommodating grocer, 
who, whenever a customer wanted cheese, always po- 
litely inquired, "Do ye want it mild or strong, mum?" 
If the party wanted it mild, he would cut the cheese 
from a certain piece, and if strong was wanted, he 
would cut it off the same piece. For he had only 
one kind of cheese in his store. 



*In the Debate at Carnegie Hall, May 7, 1913. 
f'Working Class of England." 



WAR! WHY NOT? 29 

And so it is rather unsafe to place our entire con- 
fidence in those socialists whose sole aim is to swell 
the prestige and the voting capacity of their respec- 
tive parties. Let us therefore be forewarned. 

Among the many strategies exploited by these 
schemers is the "emotional game," the "soft stuff," to 
use common expressions. In this way they weave a 
magic web around their victims. They begin by stat- 
ing facts about war, and then they gradually work up 
in emotional intensity, picturing the awfulness of the 
situation until they have their listeners or their read- 
ers spell-bound. Then they proceed to tell them that 
the Socialists are the only ones who recognize the evil 
of war, and that they are the only ones with a rem- 
edy. Then they advance a few plausible statements 
to support their theory and finally remove the hyp- 
notic state, leaving their poor victims with the be- 
lief that Socialism alone is opposed to war and is so 
because of its love and sympathy for suffering hu- 
manity. This is the trap. Yet we have seen that 
some of the leading Socialists are ready to become 
soldiers to-morrow, if the Red Flag should call them. 

Are the Socialists opposed to war? Yes and no; 
they are opposed to such war as tends to divide their 
ranks, and thus tend to weaken their forces for their 
own great war to come. But it is indeed as laugha- 
bly silly to say that Socialists object to war on hu- 
manitarian grounds as it would be to say that friendly 
thieves do not steal from one another because of 
their love for honesty ! 



WHAT THE GEOMETRIC TAX 
RECOGNIZES AND STRIVES FOR 



(i) That the Russian "Bolshevik" (Socialist) movement is a declared 
menace to the civilization, economics and governments established in all 
nations ; specially to that of the United States. It will advance more 
conspicuously the thought of atheism introduced in literature by Kant, 
Hegel, Fichte and Marx. And, because of evidently bad economic condi- 
tions now ruling in the United States, occasioned by being governed in 
tact by the theories of Alexander Hamilton, in one word concentration, the 
American people are in danger of worshiping "False Gods," as misguided 
people have- done in the past, bending the knee and making obeisance to them, 
and courting destruction to our instinctive religious observances and the 
economical and governmental construction of the State. 

(2) That the American Government should have a chance to continue 
its governing mission under the controlling natural power of distribution, 
the principle of Thomas Jefferson, now that the governing principle of 
concentration, the principle of Alexander Hamilton, is about to disappear. 
It is either the acceptance of Jefferson's principles, or, by the inexorability 
of the times, we will, perhaps, sink. under the dominant principle of confisca- 
tion — Socialism representing the anarchy of democracy. 

(3) That by an Article amendment to the Constitution, we would install 
the principle of Jefferson, whereby true capital and wealth may have a 
reasonable safety with a rightful dividend for its use ; to reservoir it to the 
possession of its ownership, safe but for the use of those who must work to 
live. In other words, to make of it a base for prosperity, for the American 
people to stand upon, likened to the base of the earth upon which life is 
protected from destruction. 

(4) That recognizance should be given to the fact that private business 
does not mean public business ; that the Constitution assures its inviolability ; 
that refutation must be made of the several decisons of the U. S. Supreme 
Court that the corporation is a person and that it has the same powers in 
government and in business as the natural person ; that, as the Constitution 
having no words in its text to define the powers of a corporation, its 
regulation, the distribution of its earnings, it is now high time to correct this 
error made by the U. S. Supreme Court sitting as a bureaucracy to govern. 

(5) That our prosperity has come because that men of every stage of 
society have worked mentally and physically to draw from nature its incre- 
ment of wealth, the power representing the age of plutocracy. This places 
labor predominantly in the forefront of productivity and what it earns 
must go, under the philosophy of Americanism, to the powers which have 
created it. 

(6) That taxation should be paid by the beneficiary subject to govern- 
ment in the exact ratio and proportion as that subject has been favored 
by the powers of government to obtain from other citizens a yearly profit 
or income. That the sum of the tax shall be mathematically gained by 
computing it upon the base of the concentrated yearly profits what the 
measurement of the one-one-millionth of the square of those profits math- 
ematically prove to be. This proposition will give to the National Govern- 
ment not less than $1,000,000,000 annuallv, nossiblv a great deal more_ 
dependent uoon what plan of de-centralization should be practiced subject, of 
course, to the words of the amendment as ratified to the Constitution bv 
the people. Furthermore under our Government Ownership proportion the 
Government would receive, as the owner of corporate securities, frorn 
corporations an amount of money annually exceeding $3,000,000,000 in 
additional revenue. This latter sum represents that much relief to our 
citizens in taxation by the acceptance of our plan for government ownership. 



WHAT THE GEOMETRIC TAX MEANS 



IT MEANS : That Socialism, when the Geometric Tax principles are a part of the 
Constitution, will have no power to turn the American people from their faith 
in God, nor their belief that they are to inherit a place in the Kingdom of God 

IT MEANS: The preservation and sanctity of religious observances. It condemns 
the atheism and materialism of the socialist philosophy. 

IT MEANS: That the Geometric Tax promotes co-operative individual initiative 
in industry and in wealth, and, by contrast, opposes the collectivism of Socialism 

IT MEANS : That persuasion, displacing concentration, will become the natural 
governing law to maintain human justice among people of equal degree in 
sovereignty, sovereignty, when backed by an inflexible distribution. 

IT MEANS : That capitalism, instead of striving to satisfy human selfishness, will 
be eager to lend itself for the public welfare. 

IT MEANS : That labor organizations will be more anxious to please the con- 
sumers of their product than to have their minds centered upon higher wage? 
and less hours. 

IT MEANS : That our industrial and agricultural workers would abhor the thought 
of direct action to obtain a recognizance of the rights fundamentally belonging 
to labor. 

IT MEANS : That labor, having then the power to conserve its own integrity, 
would inherit the fruits of labor as Abraham Lincoln foretold in his famous 
saying that "labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the 
fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not existed first. Labor 
is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration." 

IT MEANS : That capital and labor combined will then have power of initiative 
in business enterprises, free from such restrictive laws as the Sherman Anti- 
trust law ; their rights must be respected in corporate industrialism, if the 
American people are to enjoy personal liberty and to have individual ambition 
to thrive and do well. 

IT MEANS : That both capital and labor will then derive Constitutional justice 
in such measurement as to make it naturally impossible for strikes or lockouts 
to occur. 

IT MEANS : That the loss of human vitality, accumulating each day as the laborer 
toils, will, in old age, be accounted and paid for in the exact ratio and pro- 
portion as he had given production to the community in his working days. 

IT MEANS : That National taxes will be paid by the profit-makers, and that they 
will have no power to transfer their burden to the backs of the consumers. 

IT MEANS : That the American people will have power, by inauguraing the 
Geometric Tax plan for Government Ownership, to relieve citizens from paying 
National taxation of an amount greater than $3,000,000,000. 

IT MEANS : That the vision of "Equal Sovereignty" with an "Equal Opportunity" 
to every citizen may come true as an actual fact, because of a Constitutional 
autocracy to govern within the lines of a democracy. 

IT MEANS : That, as Anti-Socialism is the natural defender of pure Americanism, 
it will necessarily call upon the American people supporting its cause, to give 
earnest heed to the study of the Federal Constitution, the history of the American 
Government, and the aims and purposes of the American form of Government. 

IT MEANS : That the owners of American wealth, and the great minds controlling 
industry, will be much more concerned about the safety of wealth alreadv 
garnered, and the industry already founded, than the making of an unusual 
and immoral future profit. 

IT MEANS: The Hamiltonian Federalist Party failed in 1812: The Government wqs 
stabilized under Jeffersonianism by James Madison. The Whig Party failed 
in 1852 : The Government was_ again stabilized under Jeffersonianism by Abra- 
ham Lincoln. The concentration of political, industrial and wealth power is 
again at the brink. Jeffersonianism or Socialism, both distributing powers in 
government, the "Lady or the Tiger," is now the "Bolsheviki" before the people. 
Which shall it be? 




0RGANIZAT1 

PURPOSES AND PLANS 

AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONA <«™ 2 ™'™ g" 

(i) The American Constitutional Alliance 

ican patriots for the purpose of creating an influence for purity in all 
legislative and political actions ; 

(2) To induce a more general knowledge of the ideals of Amer- 
icanism, eminating from the Federal Constitution, and to advance the 
belief that the fundamental governing power of the nation should be 
grounded within the Constitution in fact, as well as theory, and should 
not be created by the legislatures of the several states, nor by Congress ; 

(3) To induce the sovereign people to take upon themselves a 
mentorship over men desiring public office and places of responsibility in 
American political affairs, so that the Government need not be afflicted 
by politicians seeking positions for self-aggrandizement only; 

(4) To oppose government by Bureaucracy, the antithesis of self- 
government as established by the Federal Constitution ; 

(5) To secure the recognition of the Federal Constitution as the 
"supreme law of the land," representing the will of the people as the 
sole governing power, so that under it and its amendments, the Nation 
may become more and more actually self-governing; 

(6) To defend the rights of private ownership of property and the 
maintenance of the profit system ; 

(7) To recognize that corporations derive their chartered powers 
from the State — the people — and that they should therefore be governed 
by the laws of the people and not by the absentee capitalist nor by a 
bureaucratic form of labor unionism ; 

(8) To promulgate the abolishing of the Hamiltonian theory of 
taxation, i.e., that government should be supported in the last analysis 
by an indirect tax upon consumption ; and in its place, secure the 
adoption of the Jeffersonian theory of a direct tax upon profits and 
incomes. To prevent these taxes from being shifted to the backs of 
the consumers, the American Constitutional Alliance advocates that the 
mathematics belonging to the Geometric Tax principle be so applied that 
equity and justice may thereby be dispensed to every American citizen 
in the exact proportion as each is entitled to it through the government 
installed by its citizenry; 

(9) To accord persuasion, through enlightenment and constitutional 
nrovision, a governing power superior to that of legislative concentra- 
tion, the American Constitutional Alliance advocates that the American 
people add the Geometric Tax amendments to the Constitution, so that 
an inflexible rule governing distribution may be created and thereby sup- 
port the morals of that which is an integral part of pure ethics in gov- 
ernment. . 

(10) Therefore, to preserve the good created in the nineteenth 
century for the use of the civilization of the future, the American Con- 
stitutional Alliance calls upon true Americans, with real patriotism in 
their souls, to come forward and form club Alliances, each center electing 
a member to the State Executive Committee and permit the Chairman of 
this committee to automatically take his place as a member of the 
National Executive Committee stationed at New York City. 



The American Constitutional Alliance believes that the Geometric Tax 
on incomes and profits, in connection with its plan for Government Own- 
ership,, will give to the National Government an income of more than 
$5,000,000,000 annually, without hurt or reaction to the American people. 
Send 20 cents in stamps to the Anti-Socialist Press. 117 West 1326 Street. 
New York, for a copy of "Americanism, A Contrast to Single Tax and 
Socialism," and a copy of "The Menace of the I. \Y. W.," with the remedy 
specifically outlined to cure all troubles now existing between capital an ' 
labor and for the safety of American wealth to its owners. THESE TWO 
BOOKS HOLD THE KEYS TO UNLOCK THE MYSTERIES SUR- 
ROUNDING THE DEMOCRATIC FORM OF SELF-GOVERNMENT 



